Didn't Know I Was Lost
by PunkPinkPower
Summary: Jayden and Lauren had both expected that their team would move on with their lives, and that they would be left behind. The rest of the team has no intention of letting that happen.


Notes: For IndigoMay and QueenRiley who had very, very similar prompts about Jayden and Lauren having friends after Samurai. Written for Power Ranger Day 2013.

When it's all over, when the smoke clears and the rangers have said their goodbyes and have gone their separate ways, Jayden finds himself alone in the Shiba house.

Not entirely alone, of course, as he has Ji. But he's always had Ji, and somehow this feels… different.

He finds ways to fill his time. He practices the guitar with the same unyielding determination that he'd trained to defeat Xandred with. He helps Ji plant a vegetable garden. He picks up the video game that Mike got him for Christmas, and teaches himself how to play. And he talks to Lauren every night on the phone, while she finishes her business in Nepal.

"I'll be home before you know it," Lauren tells him each night, and he agrees and they talk briefly about what she still has to finish there (council business, selling the house, shipping things overseas, and other little things) before she can come home.

Mostly, though, he mopes. It's over, he thinks. He had two great years of friends and family and now he has to figure out what to do with himself. If he's honest, he'd never expected to survive the final battle; his father hadn't. But he had never pictured a future for himself where he was anything but alone. He's accepted it, really. They all have families and lives to go home to, and when it came down to it, Jayden wasn't their family. He and Lauren would have to… make due.

And then one day he gets out of bed and goes to the kitchen to find Antonio cooking fish on the stove.

"Antonio?" Jayden wonders, and Antonio turns, smiling.

"I have never known you to sleep past 7am," Antonio tells him suspiciously, "And here you are, only just getting out of bed at 11! I leave for two weeks," Antonio says, and then he mumbles something in Spanish.

"What are you doing here?" Jayden wonders, choosing to ignore the comment about his oversleeping.

Antonio raises an eyebrow. "Did you forget? My cruise got back yesterday."

Jayden nods. "I know, I remember when your cruise was supposed to get back, but I thought…" Jayden gestures, shrugs as Antonio tilts his head curiously, "That you'd be going home."

Antonio gives him a funny look, before putting down his pan and turning to him. "I am home," he says quietly, and then he grins, "You didn't think I'd just leave for good, did you? After all that work becoming a Samurai? I want to reap the rewards of winning!"

Jayden finds himself smiling. "I didn't," he starts, and isn't sure what he's trying to say, "I mean, you didn't have to…"

"Jay," Antonio says seriously, handing him the plate with the cooked fish on it, "Have some fish."

* * *

It arrives the Sunday morning after she does. She's only been there a few days, trying to sort things out so she can move back to California with Jayden, and she wasn't expecting any packages.

It's huge, too, which is particularly surprising. Suspicious senses she has to stifle ring little warning bells in her head, but when Mistress Liu comes in and asks what it is, Lauren has to open it or appear paranoid.

It's… a gift basket? It's pink and yellow, which is fairly indicative of who it's from, but Lauren pulls the large thing out of the box with some trepidation.

The card attached has a beautiful butterfly on the front, and two cursive scrawls inside.

_Hi Lauren!  
__Mia and Emily here. We miss you already! We knew you'd probably be missing us too, so we wanted to send you a care package to make sure you are taking care of yourself while you are away!  
T__his basket has some scented candles, some relaxing apricot face scrub, chocolates, chapsticks, a lollipop, a necklace I (Emily) made for you, some pictures from the party that you didn't get to see, and a little stuffed bunny!  
__Come home soon!  
__Mia and Emily_

Lauren stares at the card for a long moment. Finally, Mistress Liu says from over her shoulder, "Is that a stuffed bunny?" and Lauren finds herself laughing, unpacking the things and clutching the bunny to her chest.

She uses the face scrub that night, keeps a chapstick in her pocket, frames the photos, and the scented candles take up residence on her nightstand. She eats the chocolate, wears the red and yellow and purple and gold necklace, and she smiles every time she looks at the bunny.

_Come home soon_, the card says at the bottom. Lauren's stomach does something funny (and she suspects sentimental) every time she looks at it.

* * *

Antonio spends a pretty fair amount of time chastising Jayden for thinking Antonio wouldn't come back. But he's equally impressed by how proficient Jayden's gotten at the guitar, and Jayden teaches Antonio how to play Mike's video game.

Then Emily is calling Antonio, and Jayden finds himself being dragged on an adventure to cheer Kevin on as he tries out for the Olympics.

When they enter the pool area, Emily, Mike and Mia are already sitting on the bleachers, clutching something papery at their feet.

"Jayden!" Mia shouts, waving. They join them on the hard metal seats. "What did you think of my pineapple streusel?"

Behind Mia, Emily and Mike are shaking their heads with wide eyes. Jayden imagines there's a reason he hasn't received this dish. "It was delicious?"

Mia turns back to Mike and Emily with a snap of her neck, and the two of them pretend to be looking elsewhere. "You guys!" Mia says, and she smacks both of them on the arms while they laugh.

Jayden smiles; it's like no time has passed at all.

"Here," Mike says, when Mia has finished chiding them, "We made a sign." Mike hands Antonio a corner of the very large sign, and Jayden reads it upside down.

His eyebrows rise involuntarily. "Won't this embarrass him?"

"Absolutely," Mike says, smiling and bouncing a little in anticipation.

"Kevin swims much better when he has something to prove," Mia tells Jayden seriously, "I mean, remember back to his training."

"Ah, so you're being menacing under the guise of being helpful," Antonio quips, laughing, and Mia winks at them.

"There he is!" Mike says, and they all stand up and wave the sign around, shouting and hollering.

Jayden searches for Kevin down by the pool. He stops walking when he sees them, and while he shakes his head like he can't _believe_ them, he does smile as he takes his position at the starting board.

"Perfect," Mike says happily, and he and Emily high five, "He's mortified."

"Try not to sound so happy about that, Mike," Emily warns, laughing.

* * *

It's both difficult and exciting when she finally heads home. It's difficult because Nepal is all she has ever known, and it had been difficult to say goodbye to Mistress Liu, who had taken care of her and seen to her training. But it's exciting because she feels like she finally is going home, and she almost can't contain herself on the 23 hour plane ride.

When Lauren does eventually get there, she stands at the gates of the Shiba house and takes in the view. It does feel like home, she thinks, and it also feels like new beginnings.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket with a text, and she fishes it out, startled out of her reverie.

_If you don't stop staring at the house and get in here_, the text from Kevin reads, _and let them "surprise" you they are going to bounce off the walls._

Lauren laughs, but she puts her phone away and jogs up to the door, throwing it open with a smile.

Streamers are hung throughout the house, and there are several loud pops and yells of surprise, and then she has confetti in her hair.

Ji hugs her and welcomes her into the house, and the others swamp her instantly. Mia and Emily want to know if she liked the package, and Antonio wants to know what she wants for dinner, which leads to a loud argument between him and Mia about who is cooking. Kevin managed to get her out of the fray by gently scooting them aside, and she gives him a thankful look.

Jayden bumps her shoulder as he comes up next to her.

"I think your homecoming was more an excuse to celebrate than anything," he says quietly, "But I really am glad you're back."

Lauren looks over at him and smiles. "I am, too."

Mike breaks up the arguing about dinner with more confetti poppers, and he hands Lauren a noise maker.

"Mia and I may have gotten a little carried away with the decorations," he admits, but he doesn't look at all remorseful about it, "So let's make the best of it!"

By the time the party winds down, after they've eaten and had large amounts of cake, Lauren is feeling the wear of all the socializing. After all, she's spent most of her life alone. She just isn't prepared for this level of social activity, no matter how much she'd like to enjoy it.

She finds her way out to Ji's new garden, takes her shoes off and walks barefoot around the freshly turned soil.

Jayden finds her after a few minutes. "They can be a bit overwhelming," he reads her instantly, as though he's had the same problem.

Lauren grins. "It's fine. I just needed a break. It's funny, I've been excited about this all week, but it's almost too much."

"It won't always be like this," Jayden tells her, "Probably. Well, I shouldn't make promises. I thought they'd all move on and never want to come back here, but I was wrong. So, it probably will always be like this."

Lauren laughs at him, and he grins back. "I'll adjust."

"I wouldn't trade it," Jayden tells her honestly, happily. "I always thought, growing up alone that I'd prefer that, you know? That solitude was this big noble dignified thing. But I don't ever want a quiet house. Not anymore."

"I know what you mean," Lauren agrees, flexing her toes in the sand. "We've spent enough time alone."

"Hey!" Mike's voice echoes from inside, and then the door slides open.

Emily pokes her head out, "Do you guys want to play twister?"

Jayden gives Lauren a look, and they laugh before heading back inside for what eventually turns into a pile of limbs and cuddling.

"I can't believe you thought we'd just up and leave and like, not be friends anymore," Mia scolds Jayden as they lay there, her head on Emily's leg.

"So little faith in us," Mike agrees, and Lauren chuckles.

"We will always be friends," Emily says happily, comfortably.

"Yeah," Kevin says sarcastically, "There's no getting rid of them. Trust me, I've tried."

This earns him a bunch of smacks, but he looks like he doesn't mind.

"Just think," Mike says jovially, "You've got years of this to look forward to!"

"Good," Lauren says resolutely, and she smiles across the pile at her brother, "We've got years to make up for."


End file.
